number of cases under my charge, finding the bacillus in every case of phthisis in my wards during the last three months, besides many in private practice. I have employed Ehrlich's method, and have experienced no difficulty in demonstrating the organism. In order to test the statement of Dr. Schmidt, I first prepared a specimen of sputum by Ehrlich's method, finding numerous bacilli. I then placed the preparation in ether, and again examined it; no bacilli were visible. The natural inference was not that the bacilli were dissolved, but that the color was washed out by the ether. The preparation was therefore restained, like a fresh specimen, and the bacilli were found as before. I likewise prepared two covers by spreading sputum upon one of them, breaking it up as well as possible, placing a second thin cover upon the first, and drawing the two rapidly apart, so that the covers should be as nearly alike as possible. One cover was then stained in the ordinary way; the other was placed in boiling ether, in which it remained for about twenty minutes, and was then washed thoroughly with fresh ether, so that no fat should remain. This specimen was then stained by Ehrlich's method, and the two covers were compared. I found and readily demonstrated to the medical gentlemen present not only that the bacilli were not dissolved by the ether, but that, on the contrary, they stood out more plainly in the specimens treated with ether on account of the washing out of the fat granules, which otherwise slightly obscure the field. INSOMNIA AND INSANITY. THE following is an extract from a work by Dr. C. E. Page (portions of which have appeared as communications to the JOURNAL) on "The Natural Cure of Consumption, Dyspepsia," etc., now in press, and soon to be published in New York: MISCELLANEA. ARTIFICIAL INCUBATION FOR INFANTS. Dr. every instance unsound in principle. Once estab- keep up intense mental excitement through stimulalished, this condition of wakefulness tends to per- tion of one sort or another, prolonging excessive petuate itself; but this would be otherwise with an mental activity too far on toward the night; and absolutely natural regimen. A man is wakeful at because of this, and the lack of a fair degree of night because under his present physical condition muscular exercise, I only half breathe; of my fifhe ought to be, just as in diarrhoea the looseness teen or sixteen inspirations per minute, not one disis doing its work of cure. So with all symptoms. tends the air cells of my lungs to half their capacity. Pain has its office, and this is coming to be better Thus the organism suffers in two ways, namely (1) understood; is already well known to thoughtful, the circulation is not sufficiently oxygenated for its well-informed people; and the wakefulness of which general purposes; and (2) the waste matters are not " of the substance of the brain 1 as so many complain, and which, in some cases, is of "pumped out' the most distressing, painful character, is as truly effectually as need be. My coffee was strong and normal, considering the present physical state of the nice this morning; it stimulated me very satisfacsufferer's brain, as is pain following a cut. As an torily throughout the day; and, what I had not baraid in the removal of this symptom, next to a rad- gained for, I am still feeling the spur. [See article ical reform in one's living habits, which is the only on Coffee in JOURNAL for May and June, 1882.] possible cure for the disease, the above reasoning is That new brand of cigars is exquisitely flavored; one of the most effectual. but, upon the whole, a perfect night's sleep would When a man is wounded severely his anxiety is be far more exquisite; at least, just now I am in I sneered at that food renot increased by the pain; it causes no additional the mood to think so. alarm, because he knows that it is entirely natural; former who told me he was never a good sleeper unlet him know that sleeplessness is but an analogue til his present simple, natural habits made him so; of pain, a symptom, not the disease itself, and but now, just at this moment, it seems as if it would he will, or may, bear it philosophically, and thus be a good trade to exchange some of my favorite tend to its removal. He has a poverty-stricken dishes for coarse food and balmy sleep! ... And mind, indeed, who cannot, under such circumstances, so I would con over and look through myself and pass an hour, or several of them, in comparative my habits, feeling sure that my eyelids would droop, comfort, knowing that sleep will come in good time. and sleep would come before I should have comBut, thinking all the while that it is sleep only that pleted the work of reform; and I am sure that he needs, his sleeplessness distresses him, causes every sufferer will find that a real reform, a permahim to be more and more alarmed, and, consequent-nent reform, will unfailingly lead on to health, and ly, has the effect to postpone the oblivion so devout-o to sweet and satisfactory sleep. edly prayed for, but so little earned. To deserve sleep is to have it. Let the insomniac review the hints on diet, air, exercise, etc., so as to know what he has to do to become a good man, physiologically; let him go to bed at about the same hour every night, if possible, or at any rate when he does lie down to sleep it should be after a quiet hour or half hour devoted to peaceful and thought-steadying occupations, Sleeplessness is often referred to as a cause of in- never exciting mental exercise, whether amusing or sanity, but it would be much nearer the truth to say instructive; and when he draws the blankets about that insanity causes sleeplessness. Dr. Rush says him, let it be with a sublime indifference as to “A dream is a transient paroxysm of delirium, and whether he shall or shall not go to sleep promptly. delirium a perpetual dream." Not every dreamer"As to the subduing of the senses, the attempt to becomes insane, in the common understanding of shut out external impressions by deafening the ears, the term, nor every person who is distressed by closing the eyes, and lowering the sensibilities genwakefulness; nor do all those persons who dream dreams of a strange, droll, startling, heart-rending, exhausting character become inmates of lunatic asylums, although all such are fit subjects for a rigid hygiene; and not a few out of this large number of bad dreamers who are likewise afflicted with insomnia — but could with advantage place themselves ful in order that the physico-mental being may sleep. under the charge of an expert in diseases of the It is therefore obvious that an endeavor to go to brain, or even in an asylum, if either the former, or sleep is a mistake." the physicians in charge of the latter, were in all To attempt to shut out the sense of sight by closregards thoroughly equipped for their work, a rare ing the eyes is always to render the inner mental circumstance indeed. Normal sleep is dreamless; sense increasingly acute. "The field of sight is soon in default of this total oblivion, sleep is only partial, crowded with grotesque and rapidly changing im- it is not perfect nervous repose. No ages, a phantasmagoria, the worrying effect of suffers severely from indigestion but is also troubled which is only a too familiar experience of the sleep with much dreaming, and, more or less, with wake-waiter," and all the mental senses are in like manfulness; and no person who has these last-named ner stimulated, and their acuteness intensified, by symptoms but can safely set them down, at least in the endeavor to lower the sensibility of the sense great measure, to digestive disorder, and as, almost organs; and, worst of all, to narcotize them with pays the following tribute to John Hunter: "A great invariably, removable by improved habits. drugs or sleeping-draughts is irrational and its ef- comparative anatomist, a great physiologist, the creSome very wise men have stated as their belief fects injurious, and if long continued fatal. Rather, and increases the flow of blood through them, mental action of 1 "As stimulation of the brain causes dilatation of it、 vessels, that no man living is really of sound mind, any having ears to hear, let me hear, and eyes to see, itself not only attracts more blood to the brain, but provides to more than of sound body, in the strictest application see, and a brain, let me think. Let the brain, the some extent for the removal of waste products. Hence sleepof the term; all have their crazy aspects, and the eyes ears, "forget their cunning" only lessness is normal for a clogged brain. The movements induced "weak spots," as we say; and the anxious, brood- when the eyelids droop in sleep because I am by the cardiac pulsations are not so extensive as those caused by ing man, who fears the loss of his reason, may take sleepy. Meantime, not self-abasingly, but calmly fore, when the brain is overwrled and the respiratory and mus the respiratory movements or by muscular exertion, and therecourage from the thought that his symptoms are and dispassionately, would I philosophize thus cular movements are restricted, the cerebral nutrition will be only a little worse than his neighbor's, and only de- Well, I am in for it again! I would like to sleep diminished by the in perfect removal of veste from its substanes. mand of him to diminish his dyspepsia, if he would promptly, soundly, and long; why do I not? I sus-ally poisoned by the circulatan within the vessels which supply But if, in addition to this, the cerebral cells and fibres are actubecome normally insane! To attack insomnia as a pect that I am not running this physico-mental mathem of noxious substances, due to imperfect digestion or asdisease instead of a symptom is sure to result in chine even in a fairly physiological manner. I cause similation, matters will become very much worse."-- T. L. discomfiture in the great majority of cases, and is in it to run at an abnormal rate during the day, and BRUNTON, M. D., F. R. S. person who their Tavernier, physician to a foundling hospital at Paris, has tried an experiment with a view to lessen the enormous mortality among the infants under his sique was made the subject of the experiment. It care. A prematurely-born infant of miserable phythe artificial incubators for chickens. was placed in an incubator, made on the model of It was a box covered with a glass slide, furnished with a soft woollen bed, and kept at a temperature of 86° by left in the dark with a nursing-bottle. On the secsuitable means. The child was placed in this and ond day it ceased to cry and sank into a deep sleep, erally, is in itself a frequently recognizable and al- which continued during the 60 days it remained in ways possible cause of persistent wakefulness. The the incubator, the only wakeful intervals being when effort to compose the mind (after lying down) and subdue the activity of the senses is made by the it was as well grown and strong as a child a year it was taking nourishment. At the end of the time higher mental faculty, a part or function of the or- old. Another experiment was tried, and was equally ganism which, of all others, needs to be itself rest-successful. The system was thus applied with all convenient speed to the 360 infants in the hospital. Their average weight was then 16 lbs. ; average age, eight months, three days. Only one died from The rest remained in the incubator for six months. congenital hydrocephalus, another was reclaimed. observer would have said that the youngest was at The average weight was then 24 lbs. An ordinary least three years old. All learned to walk within since learned to talk. a week after leaving the incubator, and most have JOHN HUNTER. — Dr. Oliver Wendell Holmes ator of a vast museum, the author of innumerable original observations of interest to medical science, a surgeon of distinction, a man of powerful native genius, insatiable in thirst for knowledge, indefatigable in accumulating it, his works have been treated as quarries by those who came after him, as the Coliseum was used to build up palaces for the Roman nobles of later ages." Mix and filter. The product is a bright, red- The same society gives the following directions Linseed oil. THE COST OF FUNERALS. The New York Medical Record says: It is claimed by one writer that one and one fourth more money is expended annually in funerals in the United States than the government expends for public school purposes, and that funerals cost annually more money than the Mix and heat them together in a porcelain cap combined gold and silver yield of the country in the year 1880. This does not include the cost of cem-sule at a temperature between 248° and 266° Fahr., etery lots and burial fees. While it is quite natural under constant stirring, until the sulphur dissolves. to properly reverence the dead, it is certainly unnec- It produces a dark-brown liquid, having a yellow essary to make extravagant expenditures in their color in thin layers, and is completely soluble in oil of turpentine. behalf. Many poor families cripple themselves for Champonnière, in months in order to make a last show of respect for the departed. The carriages, flowers, and music La France Médicale, gives the following formula: could be used to much better advantage when the poor body was animated and could really appreciate such luxuries. THE AUTHOR OF THE ZYMOTIC THEORY OF DISEASE. In Sir John Pringle's work on "Diseases of the Army," which is now about one hundred and forty years old, the idea was most distinctly enunciated that disease-germs of certain classes of disease introduced themselves into the blood, and HOT WATER IN NAUSEA AND VOMITING. Dr. Morton says, in the Louisville Medical News, that several years ago he learned from his own personal experience that no agent relieves nausea and vomiting so satisfactorily and promptly as water, as hot as can be drank. Since then he has used it in a large number of cases, and no remedy that he ever administered in any condition has proved more uniformly reliable. He has preserved records of many of these cases, and makes the following classification: (1) cases in which nausea and vomiting occurred at the onset or during the course of acute febrile disease; (2) cases in which these symptoms were caused by overloading the stomach when its functions had been impaired by protracted disease; (3) cases in which they were produced by nauseous medicines (not emetics) at the time they were taken; (4) cases of acute gastritis caused by the indigestion of irritants; (5) cases in which these symptoms were purely reflex; (6) cases of chronic gastritis; (7) cases of colic in newly born infants; (8) cases of flatulent distention of the stomach in adults. BORACIC ACID POMADE. R Acid boracic. gr. xxx. gr. vi. THE Publishers of the JOURNAL earnestly request that subscrib ers will make their remittances either by draft on Boston or New York, or by a postal order. If it is absolutely necessary to mai The publishers decline to assume the risk of money mailed in un- Remittances will be duly credited on the printed address label of the paper; but if they are received after the 20th of the month, the change in the label cannot be made until a month later. If a formal receipt is desired, a three-cent stamp or a postal card should be enADVERTISING RATES. closed with the remittance. First, fourth, and fifth pages 30 cents per line. 25 44 Special rates will be given for large amount of space and long contracts. For full information address JOURNAL OF CHEMISTRY COMPANY, 167 High Street, Boston. HUCHARD'S ANTI-ASTHMATIC MIXTURE. - Dr. Huchard, of the Hôpital Tenon, employs the follow ing, especially when the symptoms of bronchial ca phates of lime, magnesia, potash, and iron, with phosphoric acid, White wax Make a plaster, and apply. HORSFORD'S ACID PHOSPHATE This is the invention of Prof. E. N. Horsford, and is a liquid preparation of the phosin such form as to be readily assimilated by the system. It is particularly serviceable in all disorders arising from indigestion of food, such as dyspepsia, indigestion, headache, sleeplessness, etc. LOUISVILLE, KY., April 22, 1882. THE formula of Richardson's CELERINA challenges the confidence fully of any one acquainted with its constituents. I have had occasion to prescribe it in numerous cases, and have found it to justify my expectations to a highly satisfactory degree. In nervous debility, or nervous exhaustion, especially from protracted overwork-in short, for almost any form of neurasthenia, it seems to me an invaluable remedy. C. C. FORBES, M. D., Visiting Physician to the Female Medical, and the Obstetrical Department of the Louisville City Hospital; late Medical Superintendent of Central Kentucky Lunatic Asylum, Anchorage, Ky. REMOVAL OF WAR18. — Dr. Unna, of Hamburg, had a young girl under his charge, whose dorsal surfaces of both hands were the seat of over a hundred warts, daily more making their appearance. He made on gauze tissue a plaster mass, which contained Where constipation is due to 10.0 grm. arsenic, and 5.0 grm. of mercury. was kept on during day and night. Two weeks torpor of the muscular layer of the intestine, com- it later all warts had disappeared, and the healthy skin bined with defective secretion of the mucous mem was seen. The cure here is not established by necro-brane, Dr. Bartholow uses either one of these for sis and dropping off of the excrescences, but, like mulæ : nature's spontaneous cure, by resorption. AND POPULAR SCIENCE REVIEW. VOLUME XVII. 25 man must naturally be of strong constitution ent chill. In the morning, upon getting out of and in robust health to arise in the morning, in bed, the clothing cannot be too quickly adjusted, cold climates, and stand under the icy streams as the body is in a shiver; and the air of a cool 26 which come from a shower bath, without break-room is a thing to be dreaded. 25 26 26 27 28 28 29 30 ing down in health at an early day. The sponge The morning is the time for the air bath, and bath is less injurious, but it saps the vitality of all that is required is a hair-cloth mitten and a many to a fatal extent, and feeble persons are moderately cool room. When the invalid steps rarely in any degree benefited by its use. The from the bed to the floor in the morning, let the 29 tepid bath, as a curative means, constantly fol- hair glove or mitten be seized, and without relowed weakens rather than strengthens, and moving the night clothes proceed to rub gently many cannot continue it for the space even of all parts of the body, at the same time walking a week. Bathing, beyond the needs of perfect about in the room until a feeling of fatigue is cleanliness, is not to be recommended to any one. experienced; then drop the glove, and gently pass Mankind are not aquatic animals, like ducks and the hand over all parts of the body before resumgeese; they are not born on or in the water, and ing the clothing. Unless the nude body is ex 30 30 30 31 31 31 31 31 31 32 nature never designed that they should be splash-tremely sensitive to cold, a portion may be ex 32 33 ing about in that element within the lines of the 32 temperate or frigid zones. Savage tribes, living 33 under the equator, may be wet or dry, in the 33 water or out; they wear but little clothing, and 34 the temperature is uniformly high. Their habits accustom them to great changes in diet and exposure to winds and rains, and they manage to 35 move along under the action of nature's inflexible 36 law of the "survival of the fittest; " but they are in general short-lived. 34 34 34 35 35 36 ONE of the most sagacious, far-seeing men this country has produced was Doctor Franklin. He was in all that he did and said far in advance of his age and of his opportunities, and his wisdom was of that rare kind which does not grow old. His discoveries and devices were not partial and imperfect, but such as have needed little revision or improvement. The lightning-rod he devised is to-day the best form we have, and his method of applying it to buildings needs no special modification. His openfireplace stove is still largely in use, no better one having been devised. His philosophical theories and speculations were so rounded out, so clearly and sagaciously developed, that many of them stand to-day as fixed facts in philosophy and science. Among his important discoveries was the "air bath," a sanitary or curative agent which is of the highest consequence to the welfare of mankind. It may be said that he did not present the matter in much practical detail, but he suggested it, used it, and gave reasons for believing in its high importance. Our "douching" and "wet-sheet" hygienic institutions have had their day. They did some good, but a great deal more mischief, during the time they were in favor. The "steaming and sweating" Turkish bath has been popular, but its evils have been so frequently demonstrated that it is rapidly falling into disuse. The strong and the healthy can survive all these extraordinary applications for considerable periods of time, but the weakly and the nervous usually grow worse under their continued employment. With these brief allusions to the "water-cure" notions, which have had their "run," we now come to speak of a better way for physical and mental recuperation, in the case of those whose feebleness is congenital or due to disease. posed to the air for a few moments while in motion, even on the first morning. The next morning jump out of bed in a moderately cool room, and go over the same process as before, remaining a little longer exposed to the air after the rubbing. The third morning repeat this treatment; and on the fourth, or at the end of a week, take off all the night clothing, and briskly apply the hair glove, first with the right hand and then with the left, all the time walking about. Follow up this, as the degree of strength permits, morning after morning, until the body is so rejuvenated and the blood so attracted to the surface, that the cool air is felt to be a luxury. Let the body be entirely nude, no socks upon the feet, no scarf about the chest. At first, or after the first week, perhaps, the exposure to the pure cool air may be three or four minutes; soon increase the exposure, until, after a month or two, the air bath may con inue for twenty minutes or half an hour. Do not fail to walk about during the first month, using the hands in polishing the skin. After the first month the patient may sit in the air of the room part of the time, but constant, gentle exercise is best. Now, another most important curative agent connected with the air bath is sunlight. In summer, sunlight is accessible, but in winter only the late risers can secure its benefits. If possible, sit and walk in the sunlight during the bath. It is astonishing what the direct actinic rays of the morning sun can do for an invalid, when the whole nude body is brought under its influence. The air bath is a means of recuperation which needs to be intelligently and carefully adopted, and like all other good things must not be abused. There are hundreds of thousands of people of both sexes, in this country, who lead miserable lives, and yet they are not in bed, not perhaps confined to their dwellings; they suffer from nervous prostration, from imperfect digestion and assimilation, But this article is sufficiently long. Another from worry, from overwork, from the care of will follow upon this subject in the next number households, etc. A vast number in the mighty of the JOURNAL, which will be of great value to army of invalids are not themselves to blame all readers. for their physical weaknesses; their idiosyncrasies of organization come by inheritance. Heredity is the cause of one half of all the misery in the world. THE ANTIQUITY OF THE HUMAN SPECIES. OUR abstracts of Dr. Winchell's Martha's Vineyard lectures have been received with so much favor by our readers that we are confident the following report of one of the last in the series will be equally welcome : We have made the air bath a matter of careful study, and wish to call the attention of the readers of the JOURNAL to it, as a means of securing and preserving health which is of the Now, the air bath comes to the feeble and first importance. It is impossible for physicians physically impoverished as a kind and good friend; or individuals of ordinary sagacity to fail to see and let us see how we can obtain from it the that a large proportion of invalids and semi-highest good. Nearly all semi-invalids are inAt different periods the antiquity of man has been invalids do not bear well the application of either clined to sedentary Habits, and as the circulation discussed from different points of view. Half a cencold or tepid water to the body. A man or wo- is languid the body in winter is under a persist-tury ago it was thought the determination of the an THORIUM. tiquity of the oldest historic nations would settle the portant than some which have occurred within the at the same time with fresh fragments they age of the human species. Then, the question of scope of history and tradition. The Yellow River hastened the metamorphosis of these. The addiman's antiquity was supposed to hinge on the epoch of China has twice changed its outlet over a dis- tion of water to the soluble glass rendered the of the prehistoric people of Europe. Now, finally, tance of five hundred miles, and the intervening experiments more easy, and saved time. it appears that the age of man must be sought in country has been devastated by a vast flood. The the epoch of the black races of the southern hemi- Black Sea has broken through the Thracian Bossphere. As to the antiquity of the historic nations phorus, and drained the famous Scythian plains. and the historic race, it is only necessary to state The Caspian has shrunken so as to lay bare thouTHORIUM is one of that large class of metals Such that Egypt appears to have established the oldest sands of square miles of ancient bottom. which are little else than curiosities of the labomonarchy. The era of Menes, according to Lep-revolutions have occurred within three or four thousius, an original investigator of moderate views, was sand years. We actually witness similar changes ratory or lecture-room, being found only in rare We actually witness similar changes minerals, and obtained with extreme difficulty in 3892 B. C.; though Bunsen put this era at 10,000 in progress. The Alpine glaciers continue to rea free state. B. C., and Mariette and Lenormant at 5004 B. C. treat at a measurable rate. The glacier stumps of Most of them are absolutely unOther chronologers of repute bring it down consid- the Sierra Nevada afford us an actual glimpse of the known in the arts, and it is hardly possible that erably below the estimate of Lepsius. The deter- retreating forms of the continental glaciers of Amer- they can ever prove of much industrial impormination of the latter may reasonably be adopted ica. Many other great changes are in slow prog- tance. On this point, however, it would be rash as most probable. It would thus appear that the ress, which, in thousands of years, must transform to speak positively, for certain rare metals, like first Egyptian monarchy dates from an epoch only the face of the earth. I feel justified, therefore, in iridium and uranium, have found their uses in 108 years after Adam, according to current biblical accepting the conclusions of the best European ar- these latter days. chronology. chæologists, that, in spite of prehistoric man's contemporaneity with the continental glacier, the men of the reindeer period do not date back more than seven thousand years, nor the men of the rude stone epoch more than ten thousand years. But I find other grounds for the opinion that the Mongoloid race, to which they belonged, was in actual exist ence at a much remoter epoch. But the Septuagint chronology gives us more time; and making due allowance for misinterpretations, we find no determination of secular chronology which conflicts with an allowable understanding of the sacred Scriptures. I assume, however, that our Scriptures undertake to give us only a history of the Adamic, or white, race. Those who hold that the inferior races are descended from the Adamic create the necessity of a vastly higher antiquity of Adam than can be deduced from the Bible. We have next to consider the antiquity of the prehistoric people of Europe. The time has been when some maintained, and others feared, that they lived in an antiquity higher than the Bible allows, on the supposition that all mankind are descended from Adam. The scientific grounds of a belief in their remote antiquity are two: first, some preglacial remains of other animals were mistaken for human remains; second, some truly human remains were found in deposits erroneously supposed to be pre-glacial. These mistakes have been corrected, and it is now admitted that no relics of man in Europe are as yet known to date from an epoch anterior to the advent of the continental glaciers. This opinion has been formally enunciated by a resolution of the London Anthropological Society. But it is generally admitted that European man appeared while glaciers covered half the continent. Not a few investigators maintain that this prehistoric man in Europe had an antiquity reaching as high as a hundred thousand years. What are the grounds of this opinion of the high remoteness of the glacial age? One of them is astronomical. Mr. James Croll has ingeniously argued that periodic glaciation of the northern hemisphere has been caused by periodic maxima in the eccentricity of the earth's orbit. to a remote age. He concludes, therefore, that the decline of the last continental glaciers dates from eighty thousand years ago. This, then, would be the date of man's first advent in Europe. Another ground of the opinion is the fact that European man was the contemporary of animals now extinct. But it cannot be longer held that all geological extinctions belong Several New Zealand birds have become extinct since the arrival of the Maories. Some Madagascar birds have perished within three hundred years. The urus and the Arctic manatee have disappeared during historic times. So all feral species encroached upon by civilized occupations are receding, and are destined to extinction. Another ground of belief in the remoteness of the glacial epoch is the magnitude of the geological changes which have since taken place. The continental glaciers have disappeared; many feet of stalagmite have accumulated in caverns, and Great Britain has been twice joined to the Continent, and the bed of the North Sea laid bare. But these great changes are only a little more im Now, as to the antiquity of the human species at large, I have reason to believe that the black races antedated by thousands of years the Adamic, and even the Mongoloid race. This is shown by the admitted remoteness of complete racial differentiations, and by their wide dispersion over the earth before the posterity of Adam had penetrated into regions remote from the Adamic centre. It must be admitted also that the age of some human relics found in California seems to reach back to the Pliocene. Some primitive brown-skinned type of humanity lived in the southern hemisphere in tertiary time. The Australians may be considered the nearest modern representative of it. Two ramifications took place. In one direction sprang into existence successively the Hottentots, the Papuans, and the negroes; in the other the Dravidians, who bifurcated into Mongoloids and Adamites. It would not be extravagant to assign a hundred thousand years for the antiquity of this primitive type of humanity. "MINERAL" ORGANISMS. Berzelius gave the name thoria, in 1815, to what he supposed to be a new earth, but which turned out to be a compound of yttrium. In 1828 he discovered a really new earth in a Norwegian mineral now known as thorite, and this was called thoria. It is an oxide of thorium, with the formula ThO2. The metal has recently been studied carefully by Mr. L. T. Nilson, and the results (which differ in regard to the specific gravity and sundry other points from those in the manuals of chemistry) are thus given in foreign journals: Pure thorium was prepared by reducing potassiothoric chloride with dry sodium chloride and metallic sodium at a low red heat in a wrought-iron cylinder fitted with a piston to render it air-tight. Thus prepared, thorium is a gray lustrous powder, which, examined under the microscope, is found to consist of thin six-sided lamellæ. Thorium undergoes no change in the air even at a temperature of 100°C.-120°C. Heated to near redness, however, it burns with a very bright light to snow-white oxide. Burnt in chlorine gas, it likewise evolves light and heat, becoming converted into a white sublimable chloride. Thorium is not affected by water or the hydrates of the alkalies. Treated with dilute sulphuric or nitric acid, a weak evolution of hydrogen takes place, the reaction being accelerated by heat. Concentrated sulphuric acid causes a very slow formation of sulphurous oxide. Dilute hydrochloric acid attacks the metal very readily, the fuming acid, as well as aqua regia, effecting its complete solution. tetravalent, and its atomic weight is 232.40. Thorium has a specific gravity of 10.99-11.01. It is DURING the past year the French chemists, D. Monnier and C. Vogt, presented, through M. Robin, to the French Academy of Sciences the results of some experiments, showing that the forms peculiar to plants and animals also appear under certain circumstances in purely inorganic things. Dr. H. D. Valin has repeated these ex- NOURISHING FOODS AND DRINKS FOR THE periments, and reports the results in the Chicago Medical Journal and Examiner : In a flask full of soluble glass were placed fragments of sulphate of iron, ten grains in weight, which immediately began to assume a colloid condition on the outside, and shot tubular prolongations, colloidal and cellular, which grew at the rate of half an inch in twenty-four hours. Some attained to two inches in length, and were about one twelfth of an inch in diameter. All these prolongations shot a number of slender and these attained a length of a few inches in a filaments from various points of their surface, few hours. After some days or weeks all these organisms assumed a crystalline condition, and became empty inside. Some of them rose to the surface of the liquid. They were insoluble in water, they remained intact when exposed to air, and when introduced into a newly prepared flask SICK. THE following, from one of Miss Juliet Corson's articles in Harper's Bazar, will be found a valuable addition to the articles on diet for the sick which have from time to time appeared in the columns of the JOURNAL : In cases of severe or prolonged sickness, when the disease taxes the system to such an extent that frequent and abundant nourishment is required to repair its ravages, the class of foods treated of in this article will be found useful. Although the diet should be nutritious, it must not be substantial; it must be easy of digestion and capable of quickly im parting its nutriment to the system. These require since they can be used either hot or cold, and can be made stimulating as well as nourishing by the addition of a little wine, they can be so chosen as to meet the various conditions of debility, exhaustion, or fever. In administering these foods the fact should ments seem to be met by the semi-liquid foods, and be remembered that, unless there is some reason applying to the patient's welfare for using them cold, they will best serve the general purposes of nutrition when warm. stirring the mixture as the milk is strained in; re- charges the jars by means of an electrical machine, also constructed by himself. He ran a couple of wires through the floor to the cellar from the room above, and as soon as he would hear a rat squeak The basis of all caudles is flour gruel, made either he would immediately re-charge the battery. The with water or milk, that made with milk being the Barley Milk (a demulcent, refreshing, and nutri- first time he put the machine in operation he most nutritious, while both are equally digestible. tious beverage, useful in fevers and gastric inflam- slaughtered twenty-five rats in the space of three In cool weather a quantity of gruel may be made mation). — Wash four ounces of pearl barley in cold hours, and in two days the cellar was entirely and kept in a cool place, and portions of it heated water until the water is clear; put it over the fire cleared of the pests. and used as required. When gruel enters largely in a double kettle with a quart of milk and a level into the diet, its acceptability to the patient will be teaspoonful of salt, and boil it until the milk is reaugmented by varying the flavoring or spice used induced one half; then strain off the milk and sweeten its preparation. If, therefore, a quantity is made it to suit the taste of the patient. The barley may plain, it can be sweetened and variously flavored as be used as food by adding to it a glass of wine and it is heated for immediate use. a little sugar. Cold Wine Caudle (a nutritious, digestible, and slightly stimulating food, useful in all sickness where starch and wine are not objectionable). - Make a good gruel by mixing smoothly a tablespoonful of flour with half a pint of cold milk or water, and stirring it into a pint and a half of boiling milk or water; add a level teaspoonful of salt, and let the gruel boil for five minutes, stirring it to prevent burning. To half a pint of cold gruel add one egg beaten to a froth, one glass of good wine, and sugar and nutmeg to suit the palate of the patient. Hot Wine Caudle (preferable to cold caudle generally, and useful in the same physical condition indicated in the preceding recipe).— Heat half a pint of gruel; beat the yolk of a raw egg to a cream with two tablespoonfuls of pulverized sugar; beat the white of the egg to a stiff froth; when the gruel is boiling hot, quickly beat a glass of good sherry or madeira wine into the egg yolk and sugar, stir the hot gruel into it, and then add the beaten white of egg. Work very quickly, and serve the caudle hot. - Irish Moss Water (a bland, nutritious drink, excellent in feverish conditions and in colds). - Wash half an ounce of moss in plenty of cold water, and soak it for ten minutes in a pint of cold water; then add two pints of cold water, a tablespoonful of sugar, and an inch of stick cinnamon to it, and boil it until it is about as thick as cream; strain it, add more sugar if it is desired, and use it while warm. The yellow rind of a lemon may replace the cinnamon as flavoring. Icelandic Moss Chocolate (a very nutritious drink, suitable for use when abundant nourishment is required). — Wash one ounce of moss thoroughly in cold water; then put it over the fire to boil in one pint of water. Grate one ounce of chocolate fine, mix it with half a cupful of cold milk, stir it into a pint of boiling milk, and boil it for five minutes; then add it to the boiling moss, strain them together, sweeten them to suit the taste of the patient, and use the beverage warm. SCIENTIFIC BREVITIES. Cream Caudle (an equally valuable food with the two preceding caudles, useful under similar physical A CURIOUS EXPERIMENT. The ease with conditions). To one pint of gruel add one glass of which persons fall under hallucinations of special good wine, one gill of sweet cream, one tablespoon-sense is illustrated by M. Yung, in a recent comful of noyau or any good cordial, and sugar to suit munication to the Helvetic Society of Sciences. the patient's taste. Use hot or cold, but preferably hot. In conditions of illness where an absolutely liquid food is better suited to the patient than that of semiliquid character, milk, Irish or Iceland moss, and chocolate are valuable aliments; especially is this the case with any preparation of chocolate, which abounds in nutriment. In using these beverages, the facts should be borne in mind that excessively hot drinks lower the temperature of the body by inducing perspiration, while very cold ones are apt to check it so suddenly as to cause more or less congestion, sometimes of vital parts; moderately warm drinks are therefore to be preferred to either very hot or very cold ones. In feverish conditions, when there is a natural craving for cold drinks, the intense thirst can be safely assuaged by the frequent use of small bits of ice, which afford a sense of refreshment not to be obtained from large draughts of iced water, the immoderate use of which is never advisable, even in healthy conditions. Almond Milk (an exceedingly nutritious beverage, useful in most conditions of illness). Pour a quart of boiling water upon a quarter of a pound of shelled almonds, and when the skins soften rub them off the kernels with a clean towel; pound the almonds thus blanched in a mortar, putting in three or four at a time, and adding four or five drops of milk, as the almonds are being pounded, to prevent oiling, about a tablespoonful of milk will be required for the quarter of a pound of almonds; when the almonds are finely pounded, mix them with a pint of milk, two tablespoonfuls of sugar, a level teaspoonful of salt, and the yellow rind of a lemon, and place the milk over the fire to boil; meantime beat three eggs smoothly, and strain the almond milk into them, The operator places eight cards on a table, in posi- THE CARE OF HOUSE - PLANTS. - Mr. Round puts the whole thing in a nutshell, thus: There are a few general principles touching the growing of house-plants which all successful window-gardeners must remember. They are as follows: (1) Plants are a part of nature, and nature knows what is best for every variety; keep as close to nature as possible, for nature never makes a mistake. (2) Window-plants breathe, so they must have plenty of pure air. (3.) Window-plants are great drinkers, so must have plenty of moisture. (4.) Plants are subject to malaria, so that air poisoned with gases or water poisoned with impurities will make them sickly. (5.) The skin of plants has pores similar to those of the human skin, so that the foliage must be kept clean in order to let the pores do their work. (6.) Window-plants are as sensitive as children; they will not do well if neglected. (7.) Plants get tired and after the effort to bloom always need rest. If these few things are remembered, and common sense is exercised in some few others, the windowgarden will become the pride and delight of the household, and carry a message of cheer to every stranger within the gates, and to every passer-by who takes a look at the windows. RUPERT'S DROPS.. - Mr. J. Taylor, Science Master at Christ College, Brecon, sends the following note to the London Chemical News: It is stated in chemical text-books (for example, Roscoe and Schorlemmer's "Chemistry," vol. ii., Part I.; Miller's "Elements of Chemistry," Part II.) that Rupert's drops may be obtained by allowing molten glass to fall into cold water. I find that it is almost impossible to manufacture the drops in such a manner. I have used cylinders of different lengths, with water of various degrees of temperature, with the same result, the glass almost invariably breaking up into a number of small fragments directly it strikes the bottom of the cylinder. The drops may, however, be very easily obtained by using a saturated solution of ammonium chloride- freshly prepared with cold water (6° to 8° C.)-contained in a cylinder about eighteen inches long, the increased specific gravity and cold ensuring the almost complete cooling of the glass before it reaches the bottom of the cylinder. THE CLIMATE OF PALESTINE. From its peculiar formation the country possesses much variety of climate. That of the hill country has been compared with the climate of Italy, while that of the Jordan valley is decidedly tropical. The rainy season usually commences towards the end of October, and lasts till March, after which the air clears, and for months the bright blue sky is unbroken by a single cloud. The annual rainfall is small, the av erage of seven years, during which observations have been taken, being only nineteen inches and a half. THE BRIGHT BOY AND THE RATS. An ingen- This instrument, devised by M. Monnier, is an automatic indicator of the presence of "fire-damp." This gas, in contact with an excess of air, and under the influence of the induction spark or a red hot platinum wire, is decomposed into naphthalin, carbonic acid, and |